Insulated cabinet and method of installation

ABSTRACT

A pre-insulated cabinet comprises a cabinet body and a fire retardant backing covering the outer surfaces of the cabinet. Fireproof seal may be further attached on the outer edge of peripheral surfaces of the cabinet to further strengthen the fire retardancy of the cabinet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The invention relates generally to recessed wall cabinets including medicine cabinets, and a method of installation. More particularly, the invention concerns an insulated cabinet to be installed in a wall recess and a method of installation.

[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0004] Recessed wall cabinets are found to be desirable, both esthetically and because they occupy little or no otherwise usable space. Among commonly used recessed cabinets are medicine cabinets in the bathroom or other area of the house for the storage of medicines or other personal items. Medicine cabinets are usually mounted on vertical wall surfaces several feet above a sink or vanity. The typical medicine cabinet assembly includes a cabinet body having a top, bottom, side and rear surfaces with an open front. The front opening of the cabinet is usually closed by a mirrored door mounted to the cabinet body about hinges. The door is pivotally movable about these hinges to selectively open and close the front opening. A plurality of spaced horizontal storage shelves are also generally disposed within the cabinet body. Preferably, at least a portion of the cabinet is disposed within a wall (recessed), so that the surface of the cabinet door protrudes outwardly from the wall surface a small distance.

[0005] A variety of medicine cabinets have been developed to overcome some of the difficulty with conventional cabinets. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,489 discloses a medicine cabinet assembly having a removable closure member which is readily installed on the cabinet body after the cabinet body has been secured to the wall. U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,008 discloses a medicine cabinet having a cabinet unit, a swinging door frame and a mirrored door. U.S. Pat. No. 5,401,094 discloses a medicine cabinet using separate cabinet components related to both a flush mounted cabinet and a recessed cabinet.

[0006] Nevertheless, there is no teaching or suggestion in any of these disclosures to make an insulated medicine cabinet that is flame retardant and install the insulated unit into a wall recess to maintain the fire resistant integrity of the entire wall.

[0007] On account of building laws and regulations of numerous municipalities, there are a number of requirements relating to the fire-insulation of buildings to prevent the spread of a fire from one room to the adjacent rooms through any wall or opening in the buildings. It also has to be ensured that any subsequent remodeling to the buildings can continue to comply with these requirements. Take a wood frame building as an example, a plurality of spaced vertical frame members (commonly adjacent wall studs) and spaced horizontal frame members connected between the wall studs form the basic structure of a wall in the building. Sheet rock, also known as plaster board, is used to cover the studs on both sides and to provide a hollow wall with the prescribed degree of flame retardancy. Accordingly, making any recess in a wall to fit a medicine cabinet will remove half of the plaster board thickness of the hollow wall and thus reduce or destroy the mandated fire-insulation flame retarding function of the wall. A common solution for this problem is to cut an opening in the sheet rock on one side of the wall and then using expensive skilled artisans to form an insulated recess proportioned to receive a medicine cabinet. Contractors often omit insulating the recess as being unduly costly and time consuming, especially because the omission is difficult to be discovered by the owner and by a municipal building inspector.

[0008] Hence, it is desirable to develop a simple and inexpensive unitary medicine cabinet that has as a part of its structure sufficient flame retardancy to be installed without reducing the overall flame retardancy of the entire wall and without the need for a skilled artisan to build in site an insulated recess to receive the cabinet. The invention also includes a method of installing a medicine cabinet without reducing the walls flame retardancy.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0009] Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a pre-insulated cabinet for mounting in a wall recess.

[0010] In accordance with the present invention, the cabinet comprises:

[0011] a cabinet body with a rear wall and a peripheral side wall projecting forwardly from the rear wall and defining a storage space; and

[0012] a flame retardant backing covering the outer surface of the rear wall and the peripheral side wall of the cabinet body.

[0013] In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the medicine cabinet further comprises a fireproof seal covering the outer edge of the peripheral side wall beyond the flame retardant backing, to seal the gap between the peripheral side wall of the cabinet and the wall recess.

[0014] Another object of the present invention is to provide a simple, inexpensive method of installing a cabinet in a wall recess, and the method can comply with the fire resistance requirement under building laws and regulations. The method comprises steps of:

[0015] a) making a cabinet body with a rear wall and peripheral walls projecting forwardly from the rear wall and defining a storage space;

[0016] b) covering the outer surfaces of the real and peripheral walls with a flame retardant backing to thus form, as a unit, a flame retardant cabinet;

[0017] c) cutting an opening in a wall to receive the flame retardant cabinet;

[0018] d) inserting the flame retardant cabinet through the wall opening into the wall; and

[0019] e) fixing the flame retardant cabinet into the wall.

[0020] In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the method of installing the cabinet may further comprises a step of:

[0021] sealing a gap between the peripheral side wall of the flame retardant cabinet and the wall opening with a fireproof seal, thereby to further strengthen the fire retardancy of the flame retardant cabinet. This optional step can by conducted by attaching the fire seal to the outer edge of the peripheral walls of the flame retardant cabinet beyond the flame retardant backing. This step can also be performed after the flame retardant cabinet is installed in the wall opening by directly filing the gap with the fireproof seal.

[0022] Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0023] In the drawings:

[0024]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an insulated medicine cabinet according to one embodiment of the present invention;

[0025]FIG. 2 is a front elevation view of the insulated medicine cabinet in FIG. 1, showing it without front mirrored doors and without possible shelves, for clarity of disclosure;

[0026]FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the insulated medicine cabinet in FIG. 1 installed into a recess of wall.

[0027]FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along 4-4 of FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0028] As used herein, the flame retardant backing can be made of any suitable materials with fire retardant qualities. For example, the flame retardant backing may be unitary sheets of a material which is of light weight but good flame retardancy, such as Styrofoam that can be fixed to the outer surface of the cabinet as by adhesions, screws, or other securing elements. The cabinet insulation may be of similar types of materials that may be sprayed on or perhaps extruded into a mold with the rear portion of the cabinet be disposed in the mold cavity. Indeed the flame retardant material can be sheet rock which is cut to a required size in a factory and then fixed to the back wall and the peripheral side wall of the cabinet by adhesives, screws, etc to enable the cabinet maker to sell the insulated cabinet as a unit product which enables the building contractor to avoid time and expense of insulating the cabinet in situ.

[0029] As used herein, the fireproof seal can be any suitable composition that can seal the gap between outer edge of the cabinet and the wall opening, to prevent the passage of flame and smoke etc. For example, hydrated alkali metal silicates are known fire-proofing materials and are extensively employed in building construction. Under the high temperatures existing during a fire, the water of hydration is driven off causing the composition to puff, expanding by up to 25 to 40 times its original volume. Thus, when combined with fire-stop materials, these materials intumesce to provide a layer of insulation against fire and smoke. The layer is full of bubbles and holes from the expansion of the water of hydration. The foaming pressure helps to seal apertures and passages in building structures making the flame retardant materials useful in fire-stops, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,210.

[0030] The size, shape, and material of the cabinet can be varied and form no part of this invention. Hence, the cabinet can have any suitable size, and shape desired by the users or builders, and the type of wall. For example, in wood frame buildings, the wall would typically be formed by conventional 2×4″ wall studs spaced 16″ apart. The medicine cabinet, to fit in a wall opening in this kind of wall may typically have about four inches depth, with about three inches depth of the cabinet fitted within the wall recess and about one inch depth of the cabinet projected forwardly from the exterior wall surface. The cabinet in the present invention can also be produced in different standard widths, such as fourteen inches wide to allow it to be fitted between adjacent wall framing studs spaced apart on standard sixteen inch centers. Of course, other cabinet width may be employed preferably in conjunction with different stud spacing although, using well known construction techniques, the stud spacing is aesthetically a limitation on the cabinet width. Similarly, the cabinet body in the present invention can be made of different kinds of material such as steel, aluminum, wood, and plastics in consideration of its strength, rigidity, weight, cost, and appearance etc.

[0031] In accordance with the present invention, the insulated medicine cabinet may further have a door hingedly mounted to the cabinet. Typically, the door includes a mirror on its outer surface. The cabinet may also further have at least one shelf horizontally secured in its storage space and a plurality of brackets secured to the cabinet to hold the shelf, all as is well known to the person of ordinary skill in the art.

[0032] Referring now to the drawings, FIGS. 1-4 depict one embodiment of the insulated medicine cabinet constructed in accordance with the present invention and generally designated by the numeral 10. Specifically, flame retardant material covers the outer surface of the cabinet frame 12, and forms a flame retardant backing 16. Around the outer edge of the outer surface of cabinet frame 12, a fireproof seal 14 may be attached on the surface of flame retardant backing 16.

[0033] As depicted in FIG. 1, a mirrored door 18 is preferably hingedly mounted on the cabinet 10. One shelf 20 is also illustrated in FIG. 1, adjustably located to define appropriate vertically separated compartments. The shelf is supported by a pair of brackets like bracket 22 which can be secured in any of many pairs of vertically spaced horizontally aligned openings 30 at two sides of the inner surface of the cabinet 10. Of course, two or more shelves may be included in the cabinet.

[0034] As depicted in FIG. 3, cabinet 10 is fitted into a wall opening formed preferably between one pair of adjacent studs 22 and one pair of adjacent horizontal members 24. The cabinet 10 is fixed at a desired position in any known ways such as by driving mounting screws or other securing elements 26 from inner surface of the cabinet 10 into the adjacent studs 22, or by adhesives.

[0035]FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of cabinet 10 installed in an opening in the front layer of sheet rock in wall 28 taken along 4-4 of FIG. 3. As depicted in FIG. 4, most part of cabinet 10 is fitted within the opening. Fireproof seal 14 is attached around the exposed peripheral outer surface beyond flame retardant backing 16, to seal the gap between cabinet 10 and the opening in wall 28, thereby further strengthen the flame retardancy of insulated cabinet 10.

[0036] Thus, while there have shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the devices illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. For example the recessed structure may be any form of enclosure such as a recessed storage cabinet, a recessed toilet paper holder, a recessed soap dish or glass holder or the like. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto. 

I claim:
 1. A pre-insulated medicine cabinet comprising: a cabinet body with a rear wall and a peripheral side wall projecting forwardly from the rear wall and defining a storage space; and a flame retardant backing covering the outer surfaces of the cabinet body.
 2. The pre-insulated medicine cabinet of claim 1 further comprising a fireproof seal covering the outer edge of the peripheral walls beyond the flame retardant backing, to seal a gap between the peripheral surfaces of the cabinet and an opening in a wall to fit the cabinet.
 3. The pre-insulated medicine cabinet of claim 1 further comprising a door pivotally attached to the cabinet body for selectively opening and closing the storage space.
 4. The pre-insulated medicine cabinet of claim 3 wherein the door has a mirror mounted on its front surface.
 5. A method of installing a cabinet in a wall opening comprising: a) making a cabinet body with a rear wall and peripheral walls projecting forwardly from the rear wall and defining a storage space; b) covering the outer surfaces of the rear and peripheral walls with a flame retardant backing to thus form, as a unit, a flame retardant cabinet; c) cutting an opening in a wall to receive the flame retardant cabinet; d) inserting the flame retardant cabinet through the wall opening into the wall; and d) fixing the flame retardant cabinet to the wall.
 6. The method of claim 5 further comprising a step of sealing a gap between the peripheral walls of the flame retardant cabinet and the wall opening.
 7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of sealing is conducted by attaching a fireproof seal around the outer edge of the peripheral walls of the flame retardant cabinet beyond the flame retardant backing.
 8. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of sealing is conducted by filling a gap between the peripheral walls of the flame retardant cabinet and the wall opening with a fireproof seal after the flame retardant cabinet is installed into the wall opening. 